Neighbors look out their window and notice water running from the Kern River Golf Course onto the sidewalks and road. They’re worried that the course is wasting water, but course officials say people are just misinformed.

It took $817 million, two starts, more than six years and one worker's life to drill a so-called "Third Straw" to make sure glittery casinos and sprawling suburbs of Las Vegas can keep getting drinking water from near the bottom of drought-stricken Lake Mead.

With California gripped by one of the most punishing droughts on record — a dry spell going on four years — state officials have ordered a 25 percent overall cut in urban consumption of drinkable water and have set different targets for cities and water agencies.

Republican members of California's congressional delegation are tackling drought relief again with a wide-ranging bill introduced Thursday that attempts to speed up new water storage projects and move more water through river pumps for farms and cities.